My House of Horrors

Chen Ge’s plan was very simple; he was going to use the special connection between the ghosts to repeat the steps that he took earlier. But unlike before, this time, he decided to have Bai Qiulin take his place. He wanted to see if the same situation would happen when it was a ghost that was blindfolded. Bai Qiulin had his eyes blindfolded by his boss before he understood what was happening.

“Don’t think about anything. Empty your mind and walk ahead.” Chen Ge and Xu Yin stood about three to four meters behind Bai Qiulin, watching his every move. If anything happened, they would come to his aid instantly.

Not knowing what his boss was up to, Bai Qiulin still followed his order because, in his mind, his boss was always right. He walked down the tunnel for a long time, but what happened to Chen Ge did not replicate itself on Bai Qiulin. Even when he was told to remove the blindfold, Bai Qiulin’s face was still colored with confusion, unable to understand his boss’ action.

“Having the ghost blindfolded is pointless, but why is that so? Most of the ghosts are formed from the lingering desire of a living human, and the biggest difference between them and a normal human is that they don’t possess a physical form. Could it be because when I’m moving down the tunnel with my eyes open, it’s a world that is observable to the living humans, but once I close my eyes, I’m moving through a world of the spirits?”

A normal person would not have considered a possibility like that, but Chen Ge was different. In this field, he had a wealth of experience, and his way of thinking was different from most. Many times, he would assume the perspective of the ghost to see things.

“I cannot confirm that one hundred percent, but it is a big possibility. In any case, this experiment has indirectly proven something—the strange things will only happen after I have my eyes blindfolded.” To have the ghost replace his spot to find the way out was impossible, and Chen Ge was back to square one.

“Looks like I’ll have to do this myself. But with my employees around me, this time, it should be much safer.” Chen Ge led the ghosts back to the taxi and gave Ol’ Zhou and Bai Qiulin some orders before putting on the blindfold. This was his third time venturing into the tunnel.

Darkness swallowed Chen Ge, but he did not feel that worried with his employees watching over him. He walked down the tunnel for ten minutes before finally stopping. The split in the road did not appear, and the tunnel kept going straight, one way forward, leading nowhere.

“Why have I failed this time? Where is the problem?” The difference between his first run and his third run was the number of participants. The first time, Chen Ge did it with the driver, but this time, Chen Ge did it with all of his employees.

“Is there a number limitation? That’s unlikely, it’s more possible that my employees have prevented the thing that should appear around me from coming.”

When the driver disappeared, he had mentioned a strange thing appearing next to Chen Ge’s left cheek. Thinking back, the changing of the tunnel probably had everything to do with that strange thing.

“The driver disappeared in the middle of his sentence, and that was probably that thing’s doing as well.” Chen Ge looked down the dark tunnel and started to hesitate. With his employees, the thing did not dare turn up, but if he put his employees away, there was no guaranteeing his own safety.

He lowered his head to look at his phone. Chen Ge wanted to see how long he still had until his mission time, but to his surprise, he noticed that the time on his phone was running backward, like instead of a clock, it had transformed into a timer.

“What is wrong with this phone? Why is the time running backward? I’ve been in the tunnel at least half an hour already, but the time is still showing the moment when I first stepped into the tunnel.”

Something must have happened. Chen Ge leaned against the wall and frowned in contemplation.

“No one is powerful enough to mess with time, so what could have happened here?” He had not experienced this type of anxiety in a long time. At a time like this, his employees were unable to give him any aid.

With no method to leave the tunnel, Chen Ge was unable to save himself, much less complete the Trial Mission.

He looked into the darkness, and his expression turned severe. “These things didn’t happen when I came alone the first time.”

Thinking back to his previous mission experience and picking out the details, Chen Ge finally made a decision. He put all his ghosts back into his comic, and the originally crowded tunnel instantly cold and silent. In the darkness, only two shadows stood opposite one another.

“You can go now, leave the rest to me.” Patting Xu Yin lightly on his shoulder, Chen Ge switched off the recorder. He put everything away and straightened up. He kept his eyes level, and not a shred of fear could be found on his face.

“All the missions on the black phone are fair. Without effort, there shall be no reward, and the risk and reward are always proportional.

“I’ve been spared adventures like this for a long time already. I’ve almost forgotten this feeling that was common when I first obtained the black phone, the feeling of dancing at the edge of a cliff or on a thin line. One wrong move, and everything will over.”

Chen Ge took in a deep breath and he spoke to the air.

“And now, I’m all alone again.”

He tossed his backpack into his taxi, and like his previous Nightmare Mission, he was alone. Without any weapon, without his employees, he walked toward the deepest darkness with nothing but himself.

“I do wish to see how the world will change after I close my eyes.” With a firm determination, Chen Ge seemed to say that to provoke, his eyes filling up with condescension. He picked up the torn sleeve, and at the last second before putting on the blindfold, he looked behind him and called out Zhang Ya’s name silently.

There was no answer—his shadow was just his shadow. The blindfold came on, and this time, there was no one next to him, just like his very first Nightmare Mission.

Holding the wall, he slowly nudged forward. He only walked for several meters before a shuffling sound appeared next to his ears like the sound of thousands of centipedes crawling on the wall.

“Everything will go to waste once I open my eyes, so this time, no matter what happens, I will not open my eyes.” Part of the confidence that Chen Ge had came from Zhang Ya in his shadow. He knew that she would not watch him get seriously injured.

“Come on, show me what is at the end of the tunnel.” Chen Ge did not hesitate and walked through the shuffling. He was using himself as bait to wait for the ‘big fish’ in the tunnel to bite.

It felt like someone was blowing air into his ears, and his body temperature slipped downward, but none of that was able to stop Chen Ge’s footsteps.